The Web Designer Declaration of Independence
The Preamble
When in the course of online events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the browser based bands which have connected them to the internet and to assume among the powers of the interwebs, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Common Sense and of World Wide Web Consortium entitle them, a decent respect to the standards of web design requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that creativity exists in all designers, and they are endowed by Common Sense and the W3C certain rights, that among those are Web Standards, Sanity, and Creative License. When these rights comes under fire by any establishment it is the right of web community to address them and, if necessary, act upon them. Such evils can no longer be overlooked and the suffering can no longer be tolerated.
We hereby put forth out list of grievances to a candid world, claiming independence from each the following plagues of the internet in hopes that our boycotting shall lead to the reform of each.
Grievances
- Myspace, which has empowered people everywhere to bring back the Geocities days of tiled backgrounds and animated GIFs. And sparkle text… so much sparkle text.
- The Internet Marketer, their presence on Twitter, and their continued vague solicitations to “Market your internet”.
- The pixel pusher client, because that one art class you took in college does not qualify you to “make the design better” by shifting everything 2 pixels to the left.
- The family friend that gives you the “honor” of doing a free website for them. (Just wait, it will be the iTunes and Facebook killer – all in one).
- Internet Explorer and everything it stands for.
- Web 2.0 graphics, in all their high gloss, beveled, gradient covered, badge-y glory.
- The use of meaningless stock photography, because a person and three of their coworkers are never that excited about what’s happening on a computer monitor. Stop pointing at it.
- Tables used to layout an entire website with no tabular data. CSS was invented for a reason, quit using a candle when you have a lightbulb.
- “Dime a dozen” companies that “optimize SEO, innovate solutions, accessibility your HTML, scalability your Photoshop, and buzzword your buzzword. Oh yeah…unsurpassed quality too.”
- Comic Sans.
And with our complaints clearly on on display, we hereby wish to severe our connections from the aforementioned articles in order to achieve a more perfect internet. We choose instead to be guided by common sense and the W3C in hopes to lead a more prosperous and creative existence. No longer will we be limited by headaches from browser specific stylesheets or online experts whose experience is limited to Facebook. With this we dissolve all bonds to the above items of complaint and now look to each other, fellow designers, for sanity, inspiration, and continued creativity.
Internet Patriots, Heed My Words!
Do you have a fire brewing within? Does a part of the web community cause you substantial unrest? Slap your John Hancock below and practice your freedom of speech.
(PS. Also, on a thrilling side note – this is the 100th post on Build Internet!)
